The Franco American School, with rich history as a mansion and an orphanage, announced it will close its doors next school year.

"It's not a matter of choice that we decided to close the school, it's a matter of financial reality," said Board of Directors Chairman Robert Audet. "I think you're having this everywhere. Private schools are having difficulty getting a registration to (their) schools to continue the cost of education."

Meanwhile, similar issues rocked St. Margaret Elementary, a parish school that will merge with Lowell Catholic High School next year to create a pre-K-12 school known simply as Lowell Catholic.

The changes are a reaction to a national decline of Catholic school enrollment -- K-12 students declined from 2000 to 2013, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.

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Kindergartners declined by 71,790 between those years, while high-school seniors declined by 6,419, according to the NCEA.

One of the reasons for that decline is the cost of tuition, explained Mark Gray, a senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, located in D.C.

Surveys with parents found that the most difficult thing with enrollment is tuition, Gray said.

"This is related to another long-term trend," he said. "Schools used to be run by sisters and priests and brothers and religious orders, and now it's lay people. And lay people have families and a living wage, and insurance."

But the decline also depends on location -- while the Northeast has noticed a drop in enrollment, there are waiting lists in some parts of the South and West, Gray said.

"The issue is that in urban areas, often times where these schools were built, the Catholic population just isn't there to the same degree as it used to be in terms of the size of that population," he said.

Nationwide, the number of Catholics also declined slightly from 23.9 percent in 2007 to 20.8 percent in 2014, according to a Pew Research Center report.

But Gray said the change among schools isn't particularly because of a loss of faith.

"When you're talking about schools, there's not a big enough shift to have any impact than we're seeing on actual enrollments," he said. "This isn't securalization, to put it that way. It's easier to understand in terms of just basic economic factors and shifts in the population."

Lowell Catholic thrives amid challenges

Despite the changing landscape around it, the historic Lowell Catholic High has bolstered its presence. It even has plans to expand.

"This place has grown tremendously since I've been here," said Principal Maryellen DeMarco, noting a 40-percent increase in enrollment over the past 10 years. The high school is now at capacity at a little over 400 students.

DeMarco attributes that growth to two things -- the expansion of the school campus in recent years and a focus on strong academics, like the school's Advanced Placement program.

Parents come to the school from all different faiths, DeMarco said, as people who see the school as a "safe, nurturing environment."

Next year, the school will absorb students from St. Margaret, which has 186 students this year.

Yet the plan is to grow the elementary division to its capacity of 400.

"This is exciting for us," DeMarco said. "My head spins with all the opportunities that we could offer."

The school is a member of the Xaverian Brothers network of 13 schools. St. Margaret Elementary falls under schools in the Archdiocese of Boston.

The new Lowell Catholic will be co-sponsored by both the Xaverian Brothers and the Archdiocese.

School officials already have a plan for a new 40,000-square-foot high school building to hold nine additional classrooms, a cafeteria, library, art room and science lab.

"I like to focus on an intimate class size, so keeping with that philosophy I'm running out of room," DeMarco said.

And over the long term, the school hopes to build a standalone pre-kindergarten center to accommodate a possible enrollment increase.

The school, she said, tries to keep tuition as low as possible. Elementary tuition will be $4,500 next year -- roughly the same as the $4,200-$4,700 tuition at Franco American.

Meanwhile, high school tuition will be $11,550 next year.

The school also provides financial aid to 40 percent of families, DeMarco said.

"We understand who our families are," she said. "They're middle class, working people, so we try to be affordable."

Both Lowell Catholic and the Academy of Notre Dame have opened their doors to Franco American students with nowhere to go.

Lowell Catholic will have guaranteed seats for interested Franco American students, DeMarco said -- they just need to register.

Meanwhile, the Academy of Notre Dame in Tyngsboro opened seats on a first-come, first-serve basis for Franco American students, guaranteeing them the same tuition rate for next school year.

"We want the Franco American families affected by the closure to know that we understand how upsetting this is for them," said academy President Maureen Appel. "Unexpected transitions can be difficult. We hope that our tuition offer can bring some peace of mind."

The Franco American School would not share its current student enrollment or comment on the closure.

But Audet said the school has an obligation to get students whatever help they can in applying to other Catholic schools.

"Our commitment is to provide them the transition as easy as possible," he said.

Audet said he couldn't pinpoint a specific reason for the enrollment decline.

"All of a sudden this particular year, we said this budget -- what we have right now and what we anticipate the next couple years -- cannot meet a practical budget to be an operational success," he said.

Audet said the closure of the school, which started as an orphanage in 1908, is very disheartening.

"It's not happiness, it's very sad, but it's real," he said. "As a sound businessman, this is something that had to be done."

Follow Amelia on Twitter and Tout @AmeliaPakHarvey.

Coming Monday: What will happen to the grounds of Franco American School.

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